As minor planet discoveries are confirmed, they are given a permanent number by the IAU's Minor Planet Center (MPC), and the discoverers can then submit names for them, following the IAU's naming conventions. The list below concerns those minor planets in the specified number-range that have received names, and explains the meanings of those names.
Official naming citations of newly named small Solar System bodies are approved and published in a bulletin by IAU's Working Group for Small Bodies Nomenclature (WGSBN). [1] Before May 2021, citations were published in MPC's Minor Planet Circulars for many decades. [2] Recent citations can also be found on the JPL Small-Body Database (SBDB). [3] Until his death in 2016, German astronomer Lutz D. Schmadel compiled these citations into the Dictionary of Minor Planet Names (DMP) and regularly updated the collection. [4] [5]
Based on Paul Herget's The Names of the Minor Planets , [6] Schmadel also researched the unclear origin of numerous asteroids, most of which had been named prior to World War II. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain : SBDB New namings may only be added to this list below after official publication as the preannouncement of names is condemned. [7] The WGSBN publishes a comprehensive guideline for the naming rules of non-cometary small Solar System bodies. [8]
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
---|---|---|---|
214081 Balavoine | 2004 HL31 | Daniel Balavoine (1952–1986), French singer and songwriter. | JPL · 214081 |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
---|---|---|---|
214136 Alinghi | 2005 AQ27 | Alinghi, the name of several Swiss yachts, operated by the Société Nautique de Genève. The crew won several races including the America's Cup in 2003. | JPL · 214136 |
214180 Mabaglioni | 2005 CO77 | Maurizio Baglioni (born 1947) graduated in electrical engineering from the University of Rome "La Sapienza". He works in engineering and management. His main interests are in celestial mechanics and archeoastronomy, where he focused on astronomical studies of the ancient Assyrians, Babylonians and Mayans. | JPL · 214180 |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
---|---|---|---|
There are no named minor planets in this number range |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
---|---|---|---|
214378 Kleinmann | 2005 LW23 | Georges Kleinmann (born 1930), retired journalist and producer for Swiss public television who covered the Apollo space missions. | JPL · 214378 |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
---|---|---|---|
214432 Belprahon | 2005 QA57 | Belprahon, a Swiss village located in the Bernese Jura, the French-speaking part of the canton of Bern. | IAU · 214432 |
214474 Long Island | 2005 TB14 | Long Island, the 190-km-long, fish-shaped island that extends east from New York City. The island is composed of multiple terminal moraines deposited during the most recent glacial period. | IAU · 214474 |
214475 Chrisbayus | 2005 TS14 | Chris Bayus (born 1957), American amateur astronomer and an accomplished astrophotographer. | JPL · 214475 |
214476 Stephencolbert | 2005 TO15 | Stephen Colbert (born 1964), American political satirist, writer, comedian, actor and television host. | JPL · 214476 |
214485 Dupouy | 2005 UV7 | Philippe Dupouy (born 1952), founder of the Observatoire de Dax in 1978. | JPL · 214485 |
214487 Baranivka | 2005 UP12 | The Ukrainian town of Baranivka, known for one of the oldest plants for the production of porcelain | JPL · 214487 |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
---|---|---|---|
There are no named minor planets in this number range |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
---|---|---|---|
There are no named minor planets in this number range |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
---|---|---|---|
214715 Silvanofuso | 2006 TF7 | Silvano Fuso (born 1959), Italian teacher and a science writer, who worked in the field of molecular spectroscopy | JPL · 214715 |
214772 UNICEF | 2006 UO64 | The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is a United Nations' program headquartered in New York City that provides humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries. | JPL · 214772 |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
---|---|---|---|
214819 Gianotti | 2006 VK2 | Fabiola Gianotti (born 1960), the coordinator of the ATLAS experiment at the CERN's Large Hadron Collider. | JPL · 214819 |
214820 Faustocoppi | 2006 VC14 | Fausto Coppi (1919–1960), an Italian cyclist and the dominant international cyclist of the years before and after the Second World War. | JPL · 214820 |
214863 Seiradakis | 2006 YB55 | John H. Seiradakis (born 1948) is a Greek radio astronomer, emeritus professor at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and former Director of the Observatory of Thessaloniki. He has contributed significantly to our knowledge of pulsars, archaeoastronomy, and of the Antikythera Mechanism, the earliest known astronomical computer. | IAU · 214863 |
214883 Yuanxikun | 2007 RL232 | Yuan Xikun (born 1944), a Chinese sculptor and painter. | JPL · 214883 |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
---|---|---|---|
214911 Viehboeck | 2007 TM184 | Franz Viehböck (born 1960), electrical engineer and first Austrian astronaut | JPL · 214911 |
214928 Carrara | 2007 VM8 | Carrara is a town and municipality in the province of Massa-Carrara, Tuscany. It is the world's most important center for the extraction and processing of Carrara marble, a very precious white marble that is extracted from the nearby Apuane Alps. | JPL · 214928 |
214953 Giugavazzi | 2007 WN55 | Giuseppe Gavazzi (born 1936), an Italian painter and sculptor | JPL · 214953 |